


And a Little Trouble Only Makes For A Good Time

by Fionaxoxo



Series: That Gives Me Butterflies [4]
Category: Strictly Come Dancing RPF
Genre: 25 seconds into their very first conversation, F/M, Ranvir’s a little thirsty yes, but this is the woman who admitted to having dreamt about him, kitchen flirting is also a thing i enjoy, like a lot, so i’d say she has every right to be tbh, taking it way back for this one, their bubble-induced closeness is a thing i enjoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28954956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fionaxoxo/pseuds/Fionaxoxo
Summary: They were already *so close* during the launch show...
Relationships: Giovanni Pernice/Ranvir Singh
Series: That Gives Me Butterflies [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2088351
Comments: 14
Kudos: 31





	And a Little Trouble Only Makes For A Good Time

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Trouble by Iggy Azalea ft. Jennifer Hudson
> 
> I’m playing fast and lose with the dates/weeks in between them meeting and the launch show because honestly, i’ve no idea. Lets just say they’ve already started training and the launch show is next week?

Was this supposed to feel as scandalous as it did? Ranvir wondered, her head tilted to the right, gazing at the scene in front of her.  
It was just a man stood in her kitchen after-all.   
Admittedly, no one knew Giovanni was there and yes, he’d snuck in the sidegate and came in through the backdoor. But nonetheless; it was still just a man stood in her kitchen. 

A very handsome man…

Ranvir stopped herself. Cutting her thoughts short in that particular department, snapping her eyes back up to rest on the back of his head rather than where they had unconsciously drifted down to his arse.  
She sighed quietly from where she was leaning in the doorway, a slight frown across her features. 

It was her own fault. It was her fault that a man she’d known for barely three weeks stood cooking gnocchi _from scratch_ in her kitchen.

She’d mentioned mid-week that she was just going to be ordering in on Friday seeing as Tushaan was at her sister’s and would he like to come round? There was no point in them both eating alone in separate houses when they were each other's bubble. She felt like it had been the most natural thing in the world to suggest.

Which is how Giovanni came to be here. She’d asked and he’d readily agreed. But, to Ranvir’s surprise and absolute delight, he insisted on cooking for her.  
She’d tried to dissuade him, saying he didn’t have to, but he’d insisted. Claiming that cooking helped him relax. And who was she to argue? Delicious, authentic Italian food prepared just for her by a delicious Italian… _Dammit._ She squeezed her eyes closed. Back to that again.

She inhaled and opened her eyes just as he was turning around to move a bowl onto the other counter.

‘Hey.’ his voice was soft. ‘How long have you been standing there?’ Was he blushing?

Ranvir smiled, pushing herself off the door frame. ‘Oh just admiring your...skills’ 

Her mouth obviously decided to use flirting as an avoidance technique rather than answering his question. Her brain rolled it’s eyes as she came to stand beside him. She looked down and eyed up his work all over the kitchen bench and swore her mouth was watering already, it looked amazing.

‘You’ll have to be a little more specific...I have lots of skills’ He was suddenly very close to her and she could hear the smirk in his voice even though she wasn’t looking at him.

Ranvir reached for her wine glass from where she had abandoned it a little while earlier next to her cooker. She took a sip, still facing the half-made gnocchi.

‘Oh really?’ but then finally shifted her gaze to his. ‘You’ll have to show me some time.’ What was she _doing?!_

Giovanni grinned. Impressed that she’d bitten. ‘Well you’ve already seen two of my top three so...’

Knowing fine well these two were dancing and cooking, Ranvir’s wine-haze assumed the third to be something a lot more filthy. 

‘Oh? And what’s the other?’ she was asking before she even realised. Her brain short-circuited as soon as her mouth spoke. Why couldn’t she _stop_?

He stretched to put his wine glass down on the counter, seemingly deliberately aiming for a space on her opposite side so he had to lean in and reach around behind her. His face dangerously close to hers. 

‘That’s for me to know…’ she swore she felt his lips brush her ear ‘And for you to find out.’

 _Fuck._ Ranvir bit her lip, her grip on her wine glass dangerously tight. 

This couldn’t be happening. Not this earlier in their relationship, surely? 

_Partnership_ , corrected the side of her brain that wasn’t currently clouded with lust. She’d only just met him. And yes maybe she’d started it by asking him over and yes maybe she was flirting But she flirted with everyone...didn’t she? 

Nope, not like this. 

She took an obscenely large gulp of Merlot to attempt to muffle the second voice in her head. As she swallowed, she came back to herself slightly and knocked her hip out to the side against Giovanni’s. ‘Cheeky.’ Her horse voice betraying the smirk on her face.

He chuckled. ‘Baby, if you want my delicacies this side of 9 o'clock, you’ll have to stop distracting me.’ For once there was no intentional innuendo, he actually meant his cooking not his other...delicacies.

Ranvir bit her tongue and refilled her wine glass. ‘Yes, Chef.’ 

He rolled his eyes and Ranvir giggled. She made her way out of the kitchen, slowing at the door and looking back at him over her shoulder, her insides clenching when she noticed him watching her go. ‘You know where i am if you need me.’

A little while later, the gnocchi was devoured (Ranvir insisting she could have eaten it three times over it was that delicious) and they were sat in her living room with a second bottle of wine. They were discussing their first routine and his excitement was palpable. ‘The drama! Your dress!’ His eyes were sparkling more and more as he went on. 

She briefly wondered if the other couples had bonded so much so quickly. Oddly she couldn’t picture any of the other pairings spending time together outside of the training room. Let alone a Friday evening, a few too many glasses of wine between them, in the dim light of a fire. So why did this just feel so natural between her and Giovanni?

He continued to enthuse about their upcoming Paso. ‘...and we’ll both be on the floor at the end! It’s going to be incredible!’

The fact that he already had such faith in her warmed Ranvir’s heart if she was completely honest. She’d spent so much of her life feeling like she wasn’t good enough. Being _told_ she wasn’t good enough. But now there was suddenly a new feeling coursing through her veins upon hearing Giovanni’s words. She felt warm and giddy and lifted up. And it felt amazing! 

In that moment, looking over at him with nothing but absolute trust and admiration, she vowed to herself to give this ridiculous dance show her fucking _all_ for this man in front of her.

As the night went on they continued talking, pausing intermittently for more wine. She asked him lots of questions. Yes, that was her nature, but her interest was one hundred percent genuine. She listened intently as he told her about his dance competitions as a young boy and then was enthralled by his every word as he went on to describe Sicily to her. Not just describe it how she’d seen it on TV and instagram, but to describe it to her from his point of view, from his heart. He told her all about his favourite places and why they meant so much to him as his eyes glazed over with wonder at the memories.

Ranvir leant her head back against the couch, her body and face tilted towards him ‘Giovanni, you make it sound so breathtaking.’ she whispered.

‘It is.’ he smiled. That warm, natural smile that she loved so much. ‘Maybe i’ll show you around one day.’

He reached forward for the bottle of wine on the coffee table and turned to top up her glass as her reply stuck in her throat.

Yes, she wanted to say. God, yes.

She wanted nothing more than for this inconceivable man, who had all of a sudden become her entire life, to take her there. To whisk her away to his favourite place in the whole entire world, to pull her chair out for her at his favourite restaurant, to hold her close whilst they gazed out at his favourite lake view.  
Ranvir would leave tonight if they could. She felt light-headed. With what she couldn’t quite tell, all she did know was that she _liked it._

She was a single forty three year old woman for fucksake. Not some young thing he was waltzing into a stupor on the dancefloor.

Nodding her thanks at him for her re-fill, she took a sip.  
Her eyes met his over the rim of her glass and it was as if she was no longer herself. Something has shifted in the last few seconds that she couldn’t explain. This wonderful, all consuming man, had robbed her of any practical reasoning.

‘Mmm’ she shifted closer to him, propping her wine back on the coffee table and slid herself against his side, resting her head on his shoulder. Giving herself up in that moment to whatever was going to happen between them in the next few weeks. ‘I’d like that.’ 

Giovanni's arm moved from where it had been resting on the back of the couch to wrap around her. Just low enough on her waist that it should have felt too intimate between two people who had essentially just met. But it was instead the opposite. It made her crave his touch more and she was most certainly listening to that want within her when she reached out to rest an arm across his stomach.

She felt him softly brush a kiss to her hair and slowly looked up at him, head tilted questioningly. But he said nothing. Instead his eyes met hers in silent agreement as he smiled. A smile so warm and so beautiful that it made her heart race. Ranvir smiled back at him, reading his dark, expressive eyes and knowing she was in some kind of wonderful trouble.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a kudos or a comment if you like.  
> It feeds inspo ;)


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